Expansão Agrícola na Amazônia: Análise das Políticas Públicas de Colonização e seus Impactos sobre a Temperatura da Superfície e Fluxo de CO 2 em Sinop (MT) (1984-2022)

Abstract

Understanding the changes in land use driven by public policies that have mainly encouraged deforestation in the Amazon is a key to grasp the current challenges of environmental preservation and sustainable development. Over the decades, the Brazilian government has implemented several policies to promote the economic development of the region, encouraging the occupation and exploitation of natural resources. Therefore, the municipality of Sinop, in the northern region of Mato Grosso state, in the Brazilian Midwest, was one of the territories that were the scene of major transformations due to such context, causing massive environmental damage. In this context, the objectives of this study were (i) to analyze the dynamics of land use in the period 1984-2022 and the social and economic aspects of these changes, and (ii) relate surface temperature variations to land use dynamics and evaluate the efficiency of carbon capture and the potential for providing environmental services. The results from the methods described suggest that over evaluation period, the study area had an average change in land use of 25%, with the forest class having the greatest decrease (-47%) and the anthropic actions class having the greatest increase (42%). This geographic area lost Amazon rainforest to the insertion of diverse economic activities, which reduced CO2 absorption and increased the average surface temperature.